World needs Russia – Putin

Humanity is moving away from hegemony towards multipolarity, the Russian president has said

The world needs Russia and there is nothing Washington or Brussels can do about it, President Vladimir Putin told the Valdai Forum on Thursday. America and its allies are simply trying to go against the march of history as they pursue their hegemonistic aspirations, he said.

“The flow of international politics is….. running counter to the aspirations of the West,” Putin said. The world is moving away “from a fading hegemonistic world towards a rising multipolarity.”

The “old hegemons” that had become accustomed to ruling over the world as they did during colonial times see that they are no longer being listened to, the president said. Putin also warned that the West’s beliefs about its own exceptionalism could potentially “lead to a global tragedy.”

No one can guarantee that the West will not resort to nuclear weapons in a bid to maintain its position globally, the Russian leader said. The US and its allies increasingly appear to be following a dangerous principle in their politics that says: “if I can’t have it, no one will.”

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